For the past couple of years, I’ve been hyper-focused on CRM. Changes in the technology landscape and nonprofits’ engagement with their constituents have converged to present exciting opportunities to effectively meet the needs of contemporary nonprofits via CRM. But what is CRM? Three simple letters but often a Pandora’s box full of responses when you start asking. However, I am willing to take a swing at it.

First, the basics. In the nonprofit sector we talk about “Constituent Relationship Management” (in the commercial sector it’s about Customers). To dig deeper, I’ll pull on our firm’s experience designing and implementing CRM environments at many nonprofits large and small, and our conversations with many more organizations. For our 2012 white paper “Insights into Nonprofit CRM” , we interviewed CIOs at 30 of the largest nonprofits in the country. In the course of these conversations, three definitions for CRM emerged: CRM as a System, Service and Strategy.

Data Mapping

At Heller Consulting, we believe that data mapping is one of the most significant steps in a successful migration. Mapping happens before we begin any other implementation activities. The process involves taking every single field from the old database and mapping it to a field in the new database.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about some of my own experiences and observations as both a technology manager and Salesforce.com consultant working with nonprofit clients varying in size and scope from a dozen employees to many national offices and site locations.

A lot of traits that cut across the posts mentioned above make strong cases for understanding how to identify people who might fill this role for your organization successfully. Too often, by my assessment, these folks are then quickly beleaguered and locked into a battle of both responding to CRM-related requests and explaining what they do to justify their role and responsibilities.

After making the important decision to implement a new fundraising system, there are some key factors to consider before selecting the system, kicking off the project, and implementing the system; and after go-live. I recently interviewed several of Heller Consulting’s implementation consultants for their most practical ideas about ensuring a successful project.

Here are their top tips:

Establish goals and objectives

Before you do anything else, think strategically about the future of your organization. Where are you going? What areas do you want to develop? This is a good time to map out key business processes, as a new system should not be limited by existing processes. Make sure that the fundraising software you select not only fits your current needs, but allows you to grow and meet future needs as well.